Does Japan Need Assistance? - AlertNet

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Does Japan Need Assistance?
26 Mar 2011 06:34
Source: Member // Rajib Shaw, Japan
Japan is known not only for its experience of devastating disasters, but also for innovations in disasterrisk reduction. Back in 1990, when the United Nations started its first International Decade of Natural
Disaster Reduction (1990-1999), Japan was one of the strongest supporters.
In 1994, Japan hosted the first World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Yokohama, which gave astrong boost to the decade-long activities of disaster risk reduction. In the following year, in 1995, Japan
experienced one of the major urban disasters in recent times: the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake,causing more than $100 billion of direct losses. Over a number of years, the city of Kobe and theprefecture of Hyogo struggled to recover from the physical, social, economic and psychological aspectsof the disaster. The recovery lessons were widely utilized in other countries.
In the year following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Japan hosted the second World Conference onDisaster Reduction, which coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Kobe earthquake. This was theyear when the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was adopted by United Nations member states as thebasic agreed outline for disaster risk-reduction activities. This is considered the most important recent
policy contribution from Japan to the world in disaster studies.
Now that Japan is trying to cope with the devastating earthquake, tsunami and radiation leakage, thequestion is whether Japan can manage this disaster by itself or needs external support. There areseveral discussions and on-line forums which argue that Japan is a developed country that has its own
resources to support the recovery process. I don't agree with this argument. I call it a misconceptionthat has arisen from a lack of appropriate information. The recovery does not depend on financial
resources only. It needs intellectual resources, plans, policies, strategies and innovative solutions. No
country is independent and self-reliant when it comes to its resources. Japan is no exception.
The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake in India also initially threatened the recovery process due to the scale ofthe destruction it caused. The total length of the devastated area was more than 600 kilometers. Unliketsunami damage, which is mostly concentrated in coastal areas (more specifically, in a zone within 2-3
kilometers of the coast), the damage caused by the Gujarat Earthquake was spread over a vast area.
The key lesson from the Gujarat Earthquake is the necessity for coordination and proper managementfrom the initial post-disaster phase. The coordination should not be limited to government departments.

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Does Japan Need Assistance? - AlertNet

It needs to include non-governmental organizations and other relief-based organizations. At theprefectural level, a coordination center needs to be set up, which should be a ''one-stop shop'' forinformation. This coordination center should be connected horizontally with all relevant departments, aswell as vertically with the national and local governments. One-point coordination is of key importance to
avoid confusion and mismanagement. A sector-based approach is preferable where different sectors
such as shelter, health, education and livelihoods will be handled separately, but under the same
coordination unit.
In the current disaster, 54 out of the 174 coastal towns and local governments on the east coast ofJapan were affected by the tsunami. A more severe impact was seen in the case of the Indian Ocean
Tsunami in Sri Lanka, where 73 percent of coastal areas were affected.
Sri Lanka started a village adoption policy, where different organizations were responsible for the total
recovery of a designated town or local government. A similar approach was also undertaken in Tamil
Nadu state in India after the 2004 tsunami. The same village adoption principle can be applied to thecurrent case in Japan, where governments of prefectures that have not been affected and/or nongovernmental organizations can adopt a specific village or town to oversee its holistic recovery. Thisprefectural government or non-governmental organization would be responsible for coordination andcollaboration with other entities.
The arrival time and height of the tsunami in the March 11 disaster raised serious issues with regard tohazard mapping and designated evacuation centers in the coastal areas. Thinking of the aged andvulnerable populations concentrated in the small and medium-sized cities and rural towns in Japan,
there is a strong need for a ''one village, one shelter policy'' to be implemented rigorously in different
parts of Japan, both as a recovery measure and for long-term preparedness. Bangladesh has been amodel case for a coastal early warning system with shelters, volunteers and networking. A similarsystem is required in Japan, both in terms of short-, medium- and long-term recovery.
There are several other emerging issues that need attention in the coming days. Environmental issues,
contamination of soil and water and the impact on the food chain are some of the crucial ones. After
Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the New Orleans government and Environmental Protection
Agency conducted a detailed environmental assessment and found serious issues with regard toindustrial waste, debris management and raw sewage, among others. These lessons will be very useful
to Japan in the current context.
Finally, unlike past disasters in Japan, the Tohoku Earthquake has produced more than 250,000
evacuees who need to be relocated outside their hometown or even outside their prefectures. Thestrong communities that existed in these rural areas are on the verge of collapse, posing a serious
problem in terms of human relationships, networking and information flow. The key is how to keepthese communities together. Sri Lanka has demonstrated some excellent examples of sustainable posttsunami human resettlement, which will need to be reflected in Japan too. Different innovative
approaches and lessons were found through single-village relocation or multiple-village relocation(several villages coming together as the same village in a new location), and this needs strategicplanning from the inception phase.
With all these examples and justifications, Japan needs urgent assistance in different sectors, fromvolunteer management, to health risk reduction, to prevention of environmental degradation, massrelocation, shelter management, strategic planning and policy direction, to name but some. Japan is
known for its reserved nature, dignity and modesty. Japan has been generous to support several
countries in different disaster situations, mostly without drawing attention to itself. It is now time toreciprocate that support and to assist Japan in its time of crisis with non-monetary resources.
(Rajib Shaw is an associate professor in the laboratory of International Environment and Disaster
Management at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies.)

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